The Winter Wonderland Returns

Plenty of snow today with the light stuff coming down all day with 5" of accumulation thus far. This has been a pretty snow but will create nightmare travel conditions tonight when the wind picks up. I hope everyone still has the "heart" to get thru this winter. Get it? Heart? Above is the old-fashioned bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) that should be blooming in 4 months or so (photo by Santos). Mark it on the calendar. I prefer the variety 'Goldheart' because of its piercing yellow foliage and more visual "pop" in a shaded border (see below). Winter truly has its own beauty and despite the lack of color, your garden should still have interest with grasses, conifers, ornamental bark and ornamental fruits.As you can see below, some of our Grumpies (Vern and Dave) are never too old to play with blocks. They are actually figuring out a complicated arch that will have to be replicated three times to be part of a large, sitting arbor that will be constructed this spring. These guys (including Dave, Bob A., Del, Big John, etc.) are very talented with carpentry and RBG is truly fortunate to have them as volunteers. The guys didn't appreciate my comment that I didn't think the wood they had laid out below (particularly the pegboard) would be very supportive or sturdy...We had a small but dedicated crew today. Marianne and Kay continued their seed labeling and have put us in position to start getting seeds ready for the nurseries. Urban and Rose were here painting our PVC pillar planters while Dr. Gredler still appears to be relatively sane after painting his 20th obelisk or so? Larry and Bill kept up with snow removal around the buildings and will do more tomorrow when this system moves thru the area. We also saw Gary, Maury, Iza, Joanne, Dick P., Big John and Julie over here today. I had some meetings but am working on preparing for some upcoming events, including the Garden EXPO this weekend.

To the above left is a recent shot of the plywood daisies (and their eventual stem/petal support) that will be offered as part of our "Petal Thru the Gardens" art event at the gardens. A limited number (27) of these will be decorated by area artists, school children, etc. for a nominal fee and will be displayed out in the gardens thru the summer. We will later auction these flowers off and this will become both a fun art project as well as a decent fundraiser for RBG. The flowers, after they are decorated and returned, will have a preservative treatment and should look good outside for some time to come. Below is Rose showing some of her painting skills. The paint splotches on her shirt are a true testament to our commitment to converting many paint colors each winter! The bottom picture is the white blooming variety ('Alba') of the bleeding heart species (Dicentra spectabilis) mentioned above. Exquisite blooms on a very long-lived perennial.